The Lebanese Forces and Phalange parties reiterated their rejection on Monday of adopting the 1960 electoral law that is based on winners-take-all system in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

LF bloc MP George Adwan revealed that the party is seeking to press forward the possibility of holding a parliamentary session to ensure that the 1960 law will not be adopted during the polls set to be held on June 9 and to obstruct attempts to extend the tenure of the current parliament.

Speaker Nabih Berri hinted on Monday that the parliamentary elections set to be held on June 9 will be postponed as he warned that security and not the polls were a priority.

“Just take a look at the very worrying security situation,” Berri told several local newspapers.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Monday that the political consensus over ending the security chaos across the country facilitated the tasks of the security forces to control the situation across the country.

“The law will be implemented with all the available means,” Charbel said in comments to As Safir newspaper.

Security forces on Sunday foiled an attempt to liberate a prisoner from a hospital in Tripoli, only eight days after gunmen stormed another hospital in the northern city and set free a man under arrest for allegedly being involved in the shooting at Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami's convoy.

“Prisoner H. M. slashed parts of his body with a sharp object and after he was rushed to one of the city's hospitals, a group of people arrived and tried to liberate him, prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse them,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Islamist cleric Sheikh Ahmed al-Asir and his supporters staged a sit-in Sunday at Nejmeh Square in central Sidon after security forces prevented them from heading to al-Karameh roundabout, where the protest was initially scheduled to be held.

The sit-in was held amid strict security measures enforced by the army and the Internal Security Forces, state-run National News Agency reported.

Supporters of former militant Georges Abdallah staged a demonstration on Sunday in protest against the decision to postpone a decision on his release.

The protesters staged the demonstration in front of the French Embassy in Beirut.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea acknowledged that differences within the March 14 camp exist over the parliamentary electoral law, but added they are being resolved.

He said: “We supported the Orthodox Gathering proposal at the electoral subcommittee for the sake of reaching an agreement over an electoral law.”

Municipal by-elections were held in a number of towns across Lebanon on Sunday, as the list backed by the Phalange Party, the Free Patriotic Movement, ex-MP Mikhail al-Daher and some Lebanese Forces figures was declared the winner in the Akkar town of al-Qoubaiyat.

The counting of votes started at 7:00 p.m. as polling stations closed in the various regions.

Head of private schools teachers association Nehme Mahfoud on Sunday warned that teachers might boycott official exams and their role as poll clerks in the upcoming parliamentary elections if the new wage scale was not referred to parliament, as Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas revealed that 80% of the funding of the new scale has been provided.

"We're still part of the protest movement, contrary to all the rumors and misconceptions," Mahfoud said, after a meeting for the Syndicate Coordination Committee, a coalition of private and public school teachers and public sector employees.

Speaker Nabih Berri has questioned media reports that he will call parliament to session on March 9 in order to vote on a parliamentary electoral law, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

He told the daily that claims that a session will be held on March 9 are media speculation.